Orthopedic surgeon seeks $6M from Summit Health, alleging underpayment

Orthopedic

Former New Providence N.J.-based Summit Health orthopedic surgeon Michael Cushner, MD, is seeking $6 million from the system alleging underpayment, according to a July 31 report from the Westfair Business Journal.

Dr. Cushner filed a complaint in the Westchester Supreme Court on July 23, alleging that Summit underpaid him when it took over Westmed Medical Group.

Summit and its affiliates "acted in bad faith" by failing to credit him for his performance and forced him "to change his coding practices," according to the complaint.

Summit merged with WestMed in January 2022, later merging with CityMD. Dr. Cushner was a shareholder in WestMed and was hired by Summit following the takeover.

His annual compensation was to be $1.9 million, and he was eligible for more based on performance measures, according to the complaint.

Dr. Cushner used physician assistants and nurses at WestMed to prepare patients for evaluations and then coded the office visits under his name to maximize profit for WestMed. 

He continued the arrangement with Summit’s awareness and approval, according to the report. 

In April 2022, Summit renegotiated Dr. Cushner's contract after Dr. Cushner had allegedly already achieved 65% of his target performance measurement.

By the end of 2022, Dr. Cushner alleged that the system owed him nearly $6 million in performance bonuses. 

In 2023, Summit credited Dr. Cushner for 46% of his 2022 performance, alleging that he had coded visits improperly, according to the complaint. 

Summit then required him to change the way he coded patient visits, and it calculated that it owed him an additional $146,855 for 2022.

Dr. Cushner claims that under the terms of his employment and compensation agreements, he was also entitled to $2.7 million in 2023.

Dr. Cushner is now chief of orthopedics at St. John’s Riverside Hospital in Yonkers, N.Y., and he has opened his own orthopedic surgery and sports medicine practice, Cushner Ortho.

Summit Health did not respond to Becker's request for comment. 

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